Self-energizing Strategies: strategies that the individuals
ENERGIZING STRATEGIES use to induce immediate activation and alertness
and IMAGERY
Coaches want to learn how to maintain optimal levels of
arousal in athletes. However, there is a proper time to get
athletes excited and aroused.
Increasing arousal affects each athlete differently, intervention
procedures are best applied on an individual basis; each
athlete should be treated differently.
Using energizing strategies on initially underaroused athlete
may be beneficial. However, for athletes who are initially
optimally aroused and initially overaroused, energizing
strategies may bring about lowered level of performance.
As explained by the Fazey and Hardy’s Catastrophe Theory ,
when an athlete has high level of cognitive anxiety, it is
possible that even a small increase may cause a catastrophic
decrement in performance.
Team Strategies: deal with teams as a whole and generally
orchestrated by the coach
1. Team goal setting
 Motivational in nature
 Coach should provide leadership; athletes must
be equal partners in goal setting
 Monitored on a regular basis
2. Pep talks
 Emphasis on the lacking ingredient in the team,
personal challenges and stories
3. Bulletin boards
 Visually conveyed messages
 Should be placed where team members cannot
miss them
 May include motto, captions and challenging
statements by opposing teams and coaches
4. Publicity and news coverage
 Means to show support to athletes
 Way to recruit members
5. Fan support
 Tell athletes that what they are doing is
important to people other than themselves
6. Coach, athlete, parent interaction
 Parents are a great help in promoting
involvement in physical activities
7. Precompetition workout
 Lowers precompetition anxiety and tension
 Spend two to four hours before competition
1. Individual goal setting
2. Self-talk
 Should be used with a positive frame of reference
3. Attentional focus
 When there is higher attention, there is higher
physiological arousal
 Narrowed attention occurs when we gate out
irrelevant cues that may serve as distractors
4. Self-activation
 Own methods on a moment’s notice
5. Imagery
 Visualizing successful outcomes in situations
requiring activation and strong effort
Imagery
A cognitive intervention: although athletes are considered
physically prepared in executing skills, it does not mean that
are they cognitively ready.
 Involves the athletes imagining themselves in a
specific environment or performing a specific
activity
 Conscious internal process that mimics real life
experience in the physical absence of real life
perceptual and sensory experience
 “using all the senses to re-create and experience
in the mind” Vealey and Greenleaf, 2001, p. 248
1. an image can be created in the absence
of any external stimuli
2. an image may involve one or all of the
senses
3. an image is created from information
stored in the sensory register, working
memory, or long-term memory
The brain cannot tell the difference between an actual physical
event and the vivid imagery of the same event. Fisher, 1986
Mental practice is more effective than no practice, but less
effective than physical practice.
 Athletes should spend a small amount of time
rehearsing the execution of skills in her mind
 Can occur prior to physical practice or at a time when
physical practice is not possible
Advanced performers benefit from mental practice to a much
greater extent than beginners.
 For mental practice to facilitate performance, a
certain amount of skill is necessary
 The more skilful is the athlete, the more useful is
mental practice
ENERGIZING STRATEGIES 1
Mental practice is most effective for activities that require
some thinking and planning. 1. MS: athlete imagines self in specific setting that is
 Less effective in motor tasks with lower cognitive highly motivational
component (such as bench press in weightlifiting, 2. MG-M: athlete in general sport situation exhibiting the
where in athletes may use imagery as motivational ability to remain focused
tool rather than cognitive aid) 3. MG-A: athlete in general sport situation exhibiting the
ability to control anxiety
Mentally practicing for one to three minutes is more beneficial 4. CS: athlete images self correctly executing a specific
than mentally practicing for five to seven minutes. sport skill during competition
 More is not necessarily better 5. CG: athlete reviewing team strategy in a game

Theories of WHY Imagery Works Reference:

Cox, R. (2007). Sport psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Psychoneuromuscular Theory
 Subliminal neuromuscular patterns identical to
patterns used during actual movements
 Imagining movements produced muscle innervations
similar to those produced in actual movement
 “muscle memory” helps the athletes practice a
movement without even really moving a muscle

Symbolic Learning Theory

 Imagery is like a mental blueprint
 Literally planning alternative solutions in advance
 Alternative solutions are considered cognitively before
physical response is required

Attention and Arousal Set Theory

 Combines the cognitive aspects of symbolic learning

theory with the physiological aspects of
psychoneuromuscular theory
 Physiological perspective: imagery may help athlete to
adjust his arousal level for optimal performance
 Cognitive perspective: imagery may help athlete to
selectively attend to the task at hand and be less
likely be distracted by irrelevant stimuli

Perspectives
1. Internal: Athlete imagines herself performing a sport
skill; more natural
2. External: Athlete imagines herself executing a sport
skill from outside her own body; may add something
new to our perspective

Sensory mode
 “using all the senses to recreate or create an
experience in the mind”
 The more senses the athletes use, the more vivid is
the image, the more effective and beneficial the
imagery training becomes Purpose

 
Paivio’s Two-Dimensional Model
Motivational Cognitive
Imagery has two purposes:
 Cognitive function: use of imagery to experience
specific sport skills and plan strategies
 Motivational function: use of imagery for goal
attainment, effective coping and arousal management Specific Motivational Specific (MS) Cognitive Specific (CS)

Imagery can be applied to two situations: specific and general

Application
Motivational General-Mastery
(MG-M) ENERGIZING STRATEGIES 2
General Cognitive General (CG)
Motivational General-Arousal
(MG-A)